Middle of the road western disguised as a post-apocalyptic movie.Starts off pretty well with some well choreographed sword fight scenes but as it chugs along it becomes less and less action oriented and becomes more transfixed on trying to push some christianity down your throat.

I've read some reviews that say it's more of a Samurai film than it is a western.That's all balderdash.Just because the main character uses a sharp melee weapon doesn't make this a Samurai film.True that both the cowboy movie and Samurai movie both drink from the same well but in this case it is clear what the directors were going for.Dusty towns, dusters, desert, saloons, gatling gun, gunslingers etc. etc.

Even Morricone's main theme for Once Upon A Time In America is whistled by one of the villains.OUATIA is not a western but it was directed by a guy who was mostly known for directing them.The Hughes Brothers wear their inspirations on their sleeve.

I've read some reviews that say it's more of a Samurai film than it is a western.That's all balderdash.Just because the main character uses a sharp melee weapon doesn't make this a Samurai film.

So . . . you've never heard of Zatoichi? Not the long running series of films, or even the recent remake by Kitano? You don't even know about this staple of the samurai genre, and yet you presume to say what is and isn't a samurai film?

Give me a break.

That's what you get, Drink, for not appreciating the genius of When You Read This Letter.

So . . . you've never heard of Zatoichi? Not the long running series of films, or even the recent remake by Kitano? You don't even know about this staple of the samurai genre, and yet you presume to say what is and isn't a samurai film?

Of course I do. What's your point?This has more references to westerns than it does Samurai films.

SPOILER

So Denzel is blind (which isn't apparent until the end of the film and even then I wondered if he really was. Maybe he has sight and can just read brail?). Is that the one and only reference to Zatoichi?

I think the fact that the character uses the long blade thing AND the final revelation about him combine to reference Zatoichi and suggest that the film operates to some degree as a samurai film (the opening encounter, filmed in silhouette, is certainly choreographed like a samurai fight). I don't have any problem calling it a Western, either. I have long maintained that the plains of Troy, Conan's Hyperborea, John Carter's Mars, Lawrence's Arabia, to mention just a few locales, are essentially a single arena. The Hero With a Thousand Faces is shown to best advantage on a bare stage. The differences between pre-Meiji Japan, the American West of fiction and film, and a post-apocalyptic wasteland aren't worth quibbling over. The essential quality of all three remain the same.

That's what you get, Drink, for not appreciating the genius of When You Read This Letter.

I don't have any problem calling it a Western, either. I have long maintained that the plains of Troy, Conan's Hyperborea, John Carter's Mars, Lawrence's Arabia, to mention just a few locales, are essentially a single arena. The Hero With a Thousand Faces is shown to best advantage on a bare stage. The differences between pre-Meiji Japan, the American West of fiction and film, and a post-apocalyptic wasteland aren't worth quibbling over. The essential quality of all three remains the same.

That's what you get, Drink, for not appreciating the genius of When You Read This Letter.

Last I checked DJ, my original post says I called a review "balderdash" for claiming that the film resembles a Samurai movie more than it does a western.I never said there were no elements of a Samurai film in it.